approach: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee releases a new set of GIFs in English and Spanish (with different dialects) every month to be shared quickly on social media on what we call "Juntos". Each month we would have to conceptualize and develop approximately 15, although the numbers would vary and the prompts eventually had to be put on pause to make time for Election Day preparations. I would create the static versions of these GIFs, separate the layers for our motion designer, and then pass the artboards and the vision for the final product along. Our motion designer for all of these GIFs was Jacob Samuels. In politics, this was one of the few "more creative" projects we could work on, since most political projects tend to have certain guidelines to follow. Here was my approach for each of these, which I believe to be the most successful of the ones I made:

1. "Republicans Side With...": I wanted to really lean into putting pressure on "you", whoever the viewer was. The Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Big Money almost seem to be overwhelming, with the odds stacked against you. But yet "you" are the standout element on this GIF, indicating your importance in standing up to this relationship that seeks to crush you. Every element except for "you" is set on an angle, aiming to show instability and crookedness in such a partnership.

2. "Keep Kids Safe": I wanted to avoid putting any triggering imagery on the GIF but still make a clear point about what we are trying to keep kids safe from. By putting the mechanical parts of a gun on the board, I wanted to convey that we've come to a point that we are now teaching children how to contribute to the solution of gun violence themselves, when it's everyone else that should be solving it for them. They are victims of these crimes, yet we are teaching them "as long as it's not me" mentality instead of just working to solve gun violence itself. With such a call to action, it's hard to disagree with wanting to keep kids safe.

3. "Don't Believe Everything...": I specifically wanted to mirror Twitter's UI with this design, since it's associated with spreading misinformation and people posting their half-baked/unresearched opinions. Even if the first social media platform the viewer thought of wasn't Twitter when they saw the GIF, I definitely wanted to ensure it looked like any sort of social media site. Orange is not a color that is seen often, and typically (in America) serves as a color for a warning or to proceed with caution. I also put a slight glitch effect and wavy distortion on the white text above to add to the sense that something isn't quite right about it.

4. "Free Press": To represent such an abstract idea as "freedom of speech" or "freedom of press", I thought back to how news used to be widely spread: the printing press. While this GIF may not be an exact representation of how a printing press would truly look in a print shop, most people know the process of transferring ink to paper with a roller in order to get your message out. To tie in freedom with the United States, I used the traditional red, white, and blue color palette with stars and stripes.

5. "Republicans Voted Against...": I wanted to combine the imagery of a ballot box with a paper shredder, conveying that voting for Republicans would essentially be wasting your vote. One could also avoid interpreting it as a ballot box at all, and just that whatever rights you've got are being destroyed by Republicans. I stuck with using red since it's associated with Republicans then added a sinister shade to it as it goes further and further towards, and eventually into, the shredder. I put a slight stippling on the shading to hopefully add a bit of an uneasy feeling as you go down more, rather than having a smooth, satisfying gradient.

6. "Democrats Cut Costs": Also quite straightforward in concept, I wanted to very simply and quickly convey that Democrats are looking to cut costs, namely with the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act.